Currently Reading or Recommend.

What I'm listening to on iTunes.

February 08, 2008

I had the opportunity to experience the new video tool from Yahoo this afternoon. It's interesting, a bit busy and from first appearances a bit rough around the edges. My own experiences, (note: your mileage may vary,) the chat room worked only part of the time when I entered someone's broadcast. The chat room reminds me of early chat programs when they first came out, like ICQ, with the wild colours and expansive fonts. For me it made for a less than pleasant chat experience. Thankfully there's Skype, and in one session we set up a back channel for text and for a while, voice, chat, to see if we all couldn't make sense of this new tool.

I was unable to find out how to carry on a conversation with anyone in particular in any of the broadcasts I joined. There were times, that I could chat with one or two people who were a part of the broadcast. Other times, we were relegated to writing signs with crayons and paper and holding them up to our camera's for all to see.

Does anyone know if your broadcast is limited to simply the four other video participants that show up on the screen? It occurred to me that the four other video participants on my screen were not necessarily the same folks that were on other participants screens.

In this day and age, I expect more from a company, especially like Yahoo, who brings out a program like this, and then apparently expects those of us in the general public to finish de-bugging the product for them. Overall the product looks good and the idea is sound to a point, and yet, it leave me and others I've spoken with with a less than favourable taste in our mouths. I'll continue to make use of the other video products that are currently available, and take another look at Live in a couple of weeks and see what has transpired.

February 03, 2008

There have been a few new Social Media tools I've been using over the past week or so. Adobe AIR applications, Snitter, twhirl, and and for Pownce. Earlier this week I dumped all of the AIR application/client's as none of them played well with anything on either of my computers. I like the concept of having a stand alone client for Twitter and Pownce and whatever else is in the works, along with certain features that were available, I was spending entirely to much time messing with the program to make it worth my while.
So now it's back to using a web browser, sometimes Firefox and sometimes Flock, until the next generation of AIR applications arrive. I guess this is all a part of being on the bleeding edge of Social Networking technology.

In the currently world of Social Media there are new tools, available to us daily and in some cases almost hourly. Qik.com is just one of those sites. Qik.com is a great site where those who have any of the following phones: Nokia S60 phones: N71, N73, N75, N76, N77, N80, N91, N92, N93i, N95, E50, E51, E61i, E65, E70m E90 Communicator, 3250, 5500, 5700 Xpress Music, 6110 Navigator, 6120 Classic, 6121 Classic, and 6290, can make use of the service. I don't know the current user base of any of the list and I'd imagine it's small in the larger internet scheme of things. Now, what's even more annoying is that unless you have one of the aforementioned phones, you can't make use of the Qik.com chat feature.
I've had one occasion to use a Nokia N800 recently on our trip to India. I'm impressed with Nokia and what they've done with hardware. Likewise the software interface that has given us Qik.com is also impressive. Yet, it's a walled garden in the social media world. I'd expect more from Nokia.

December 28, 2006

iChat Can’t Connect? Getting the Dreaded “User Has Declined Your Invitation” or Error -8? Here’s Why!: "Are you one of those people for whom iChat audio and video chatting used to work, but suddenly it has stopped working, for no apparent reason? Are you getting 'user has declined your invitation' or 'communications error' errors, or maybe even the dreaded 'error -8'? Have you changed nothing at all on your end, but suddenly you simply can't audio chat or video chat with some people - or maybe anybody?
Well, you're not alone."

Apparently there is a current challenge with making voice or video connections over iChat. I just had an opportunity to do a test with a friend of mine in the Bay area and we were unable to connect. Anyone else out there having a similar challenge?

November 11, 2006

This obviously deserves a detailed post but with a ton of ‘Lorem Ipsum’ placeholder text to replace this weekend that will have to wait.

In the meantime…

At Winksite it has always been our goal to provide a service that supports how people prefer to engage their mobile devices (and each other) rather then what we ‘hoped’ they would do. We purposely developed a tool that was designed wide in order to learn as much as possible. We figured, launch a flexible publishing tool, step out of the way, watch, listen, then respond with innovations. Along the way we talked to hundreds of people, read and responded to thousands of email requests, and participated in the many communities that arose worldwide.

Well, now it’s time to respond. We’ll be building upon what we have learned and go deep for a while. Expect regular, iterative releases over the next 90 days. I’ll post our thoughts throughout and be interested in hearing yours.

So, if you are inclined head over to Winksite to see what’s brewing. Some of what we are up to will be immediately clear, while other aspects will be apparent over time.

And, while we promise not to break anything you’ll notice in the short term a bit of the old mixed with the new.